Plot

The setting is the never-ending war between the police and the traids of Hong Kong. Chan is a cop who's been assigned to undercover work inside the traids for so long that he's been able to rise through the ranks to a position of some authority. Lau, meanwhile, is a secret member of the triads who has infiltrated the police force with an equal level of success. As they feed their bosses information on the plans and counter-plans of the organizations they pretend to serve, they both begin to feel the stresses of their double lives as they become torn between the oppressive obligations they owe to their superiors and the growing camaraderie they share with the foot soldiers around them. As the two organizations become increasingly aware of the moles in their midsts, the race is on for Chan and Lau to try and get out of the game alive.

Comments

These are comments on the movie "Colour of Truth" (2003) which has not yet appeared in the IMDB Real summary line: From a full basket of predictability can a good flick still be assembled Spoilers Everything in Colour of Truth you have seen before, likely more than once, and these elements are put together in way that is frightfully predictable. This however does not prevent the movie from being watchable and even enjoyable. One reason is the good, brisk pace. The other is the abundance of characters, which provides a good variety even if most of them are somewhat one-dimensional. The main reason, however, is Anthony Wong. Academy of Performing Arts trained, Wong is a true actor and a joy to watch whether he is in lead, support, or even a cameo role. In Colour of Truth, the two lead roles are a veteran police inspector, played by Wong, and a young officer whose father was a colleague that the inspector shot, under dubious circumstances. In this movie, Wong for the first time adopts an identity that reflects what he is in real life, a Eurasian, something he rarely refers to because he detests his English father who deserted him and his mother. It is completely different in the movie. Inspector Wong Jiang's father, once a bomb expert in England, is incapacitated by two strokes. The inspector feeds, baths and even changes diaper for his father. It's quite a touching scene to see Inspector Wong stroking his father's almost hairless head gently. I seem to sense that behind the actor, Anthony Wong is stroking a father that he longs to have but never had. The movie is a good commercial flick, and followers of Hong Kong movie will enjoy seeing many faces, albeit some of them briefly. There are Francis Ng and Lau Ching-Wun, two of Hong Kong's best actors, playing a good, tense scene with Wong at the beginning. There is Tse Yin, now at his 70s, an icon in the Hong Kong movie world and still active. Of the up and rising, there is Gillian Chung from the Twins Effect and Tao Man-Chak who is getting a good handle of his comic role since Internal Affairs. Chan Siu-Chun plays a role he is very familiar with since his Goo Wark Gai series: an underworld boss. Pinky Cheung would have got the voluptuous role of the Vietnamese assassin a couple of years ago but now it is given to the new comer Winnie Leung who play the real estate agent in Twine Effect. Pinky instead plays a middle-aged mother. I have not forgotten about the other lead, the young policy officer taken under the wings of Wong who he believes to be the murder of his father. Wong Ho-Yin, young and fresh looking, gave a respectable performance. The literal translation of the Chinese title of this movie is `Black and White Forest'.